Mr. Johnson Goes to Washington

I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal about Senator Ron Johnson's frustrations in his first two years in office. Here are some excerpts:

Sounding like he's channeling the spirit of Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, he adds: "The government isn't here to solve our problems. We need government. It's necessary. But by and large, it's something to fear because as it grows, our freedoms recede. And as a result, way too many are trading their freedoms . . . for a false sense of economic security."

First up is a line graph that illustrates how federal spending has exploded to 24% of GDP from 2% a century ago. Next, a chart that plots spending and revenue over the past 50 years. Spending has averaged about 20.2% while revenue has trended around 18.1%—regardless of whether the top marginal tax rate was 90% or 28%. "The variation around that mean is tight. We've only gone above that mean [on revenue] four times," he notes.

Then come slides dispelling Democratic myths such as the ones about how Bush tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan blew up the deficit. The tax cuts and war budgets account for just $1.2 trillion of the $5.3 trillion in deficits the Obama administration has run in four years. Republicans during the Bush administration might have been "spending like banshees," he says, but "they did get the deficit down to $162 billion. Far too high for me, but quaint in comparison to Obama's record."

As for the "draconian cuts" that Republicans now supposedly want to inflict, spending even under Rep. Paul Ryan's budget would be $1 trillion higher in 2022 than it is today.

And the idea that asking the wealthy to "pay their fair share," whatever that is, can solve the deficit? The president's so-called Buffett Rule to establish a minimum tax rate of 30% for millionaires would raise about $5 billion a year, while allowing the Bush rates to expire for the wealthy might bring in an additional $67 billion. ("I would like to do a Buffett Rule," Mr. Johnson deadpans. "Just for Buffett.")

The tax revenue would be a pittance, given that the deficit this year is $1.1 trillion and the national debt is $16 trillion—which, Mr. Johnson notes, will explode under ObamaCare. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the health law will cost $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years. The senator says that's a lowball estimate and that the gnomes at the CBO are underestimating the incentive for employers to drop their workers onto government-subsidized exchanges.

"Do I pay $15,000 and try to comply with 15,000 pages of law and regulations? Or do I pay the two- or three-thousand-dollar penalty" and make workers eligible for a generous subsidy?

The senator flips to another couple of slides that show how wildly unsuccessful the Obama administration's economic policies have been. Since the president took office, middle-class incomes have dropped by an average of $4,520 while health-care premiums have risen by about $3,000.